Cons

Bottom Line

The feature-packed InMotion Hosting offers many free tools for building a website, and it's PCMag's top choice for managed WordPress hosting.

19 Jun 2018Jeffrey L. Wilson

If you're in search of a web host for either personal or professional websites, check out InMotion Hosting. This web hosting service boasts shared, dedicated, reseller, virtual private server (VPS), and WordPress hosting, as well as numerous free ecommerce tools. InMotion's lack of Windows servers and a few other minor issues prevent it from reaching the heights of DreamHost, HostGator, and Hostwinds, PCMag's overall Editors' Choices for web hosting services, however.

Shared Web Hosting

InMotion offers three Linux-based shared web hosting plans. The most basic, Launch ($7.46 per month with an annual subscription), supports two websites and up to six domains. Power ($9.99 per month with an annual subscription) nets you six websites and up to 26 domains, while Pro ($15.99 per month with an annual subscription) offers unlimited websites and unlimited domains. All InMotion shared hosting plans include unlimited email, storage, and monthly data transfers, which is a nice touch.

That said, HostGator gets the nod as PCMag Editors' Choice award winner for shared web hosting services. InMotion's rival also offers unlimited domains, email, storage, and monthly data transfers, and it adds the choice of Linux- or Windows-based servers. The Windows option is an important one if your site has software that runs on an ASP.NET framework.

VPS Web Hosting

InMotion offers solid VPS web hosting that starts at $41.64 per month and tops out at $154 per month. You get respectable top-level specs, including 8GB of RAM, 6TB of monthly data transfers, and 260GB of storage. Unlimited email, domains, websites, and MySQL databases are included, too. InMotion has a good VPS offering, but it isn't as robust as the PCMag Editors' Choice for VPS hosting, Hostwinds.

Hostwinds has stacked and flexible VPS offerings that start at $7.50 per month for 1GB of RAM, 25GB of disk space, unlimited monthly data transfers, and unlimited email. Its offerings scale up to $129 per month for 18.5GB of RAM, 130GB of disk space, unlimited monthly data transfers, and unlimited email.

An Inmotion rep stated that the company's VPS plans double as its cloud hosting plans. In fact, there are no separate cloud hosting packages listed on InMotion's site. We recommend checking out DreamHost, a service that provides excellent, Editors' Choice award-winning cloud hosting.

Dedicated Web Hosting

You can configure the company's Linux-based dedicated web servers (starting at $136 per month) with 3TB of storage, 15TB of monthly data transfers (which tops SiteGround's 5TB), and an impressive 64GB of RAM. Many of web hosts I've tested offer just 16GB.

Inmotion has solid dedicated web hosting plans, but Hostwinds, the PCMag Editors' Choice for dedicated hosting, has better all-around packages. Hostwinds offers dedicated hosting packages (starting at $99) that can be outfitted with up to 3TB of storage, 128GB of RAM. They boast unlimited monthly data transfers, too. You even get a choice of Linux- or Windows-based servers.

WordPress Web Hosting

If you're looking for WordPress hosting, InMotion offers solid packages. The web host's Linux-based, WordPress-optimized servers (starting at $8.29 per month, with an annual plan) come with the content management system preinstalled, and they offer free daily backups and automatic software updates. In a nice touch, InMotion will automatically update your third-party WordPress plug-ins, if you opt in to that feature, and it can also bolster your WordPress installation with a custom-configured NGINX stack and an in-house caching system.

InMotion's WordPress hosting tosses most of the usual limitations to the wind. It offers unlimited websites, disk space, and monthly data transfers. Many of the true managed WordPress hosts we've reviewed have caps in place that limit their plans in some regard. InMotion also offers the BoldGrid website builder for your convenience.

That said, TMDHosting reigns as the WordPress hosting champ. The Editors' Choice award-winning service (starting at $8.95 per month, without an annual plan) boasts Linux servers, Windows servers, unlimited storage and monthly data transfers, and WordPress-specific features like automatic security updates and live staging (the ability to create and test your site on a free temporary domain that can not be accessed via search engines).

Reseller Web Hosting

If you're looking to get into the web hosting game for yourself, but you don't want to spin up your own servers or worry about providing bandwidth for them, check out InMotion's reseller packages. The three plans, starting at $27.99 per month, don't offer unlimited monthly data transfers and storage as Hostwinds' plans do, but you do get unlimited email, which is a nice touch.

The entry-level R-1000S plan comes with 90GB of storage, 800GB of monthly data transfers, and unlimited cPanels. The mid-tier R-2000S plan ups the storage to 120GB, and the monthly data transfers to 1,200GB. R-3000S boasts 160GB of storage, and 1,600GB of monthly data transfers. InMotion provides 24/7 customer support, too, and it gives you a choice of Linux- or Windows-based servers, too. The plans are quite respectable, though they don't quite measure up with Hostwinds' robust, Editors' Choice award-winning offerings.

Setting Up a Website

I chose the Launch plan for my testing. I am disappointed that my only option was to sign up for a full year. Like most web hosts, a discount is applied to the first term (for up to three years). InMotion discloses its renewal rates, so you don't get any surprises. There are no month-to-month options, unfortunately.

I was a bit dubious when the confirmation page said that an account specialist would contact me by phone to complete the setup process; I couldn't log in until that happened. However, the call was prompt and quite helpful, and I wasn't pushed into making any additional purchases. The representative asked a few questions about the type of website I wanted to build, and then emailed me the appropriate welcome materials.

Lots of Log-Ins

You access your general account settings from the Account Management Panel (AMP), but managing the website requires a separate cPanel login. I had some trouble finding and installing the basic site builder, which is, oddly enough, called the Premium Website Builder. Eventually, I contacted web chat support, but the person I chatted with referred me to email support. Thankfully, I got a quick response, and after I supplied my AMP password, the support team was able to set me up.

The service's website builder requires yet another login and password, but building a website is an otherwise straightforward affair. You have three site types to choose from (site, blog, or photo gallery), you can select themes and colors, and you can pick the types of pages you'd like to include on your site. In addition to standard pages such as Contact Us and About Us, you can add special pages, such as Flash Intro and eShop. Next, you can add a map, poll, RSS reader, or script module into your pages. Unfortunately, the Premium Website Builder doesn't produce particularly attractive pages; my site looked dated. Alternatively, you can use WordPress to create your site.

E-Commerce

Inmotion has many e-commerce options. You can add an eShop page using the Premium Web Builder and build a simple store. Payment options are limited, though. You can also download OpenCart or PrestaShop (both free) for a more robust store. I gave OpenCart a try; it offers a comprehensive dashboard for tracking customers and sales and multiple shipping and payment options. This beats other hosts like iPower and JustHost, which charge an extra monthly fee for e-commerce. Unfortunately, e-commerce isn't available with the basic Launch plan.

Security

InMotion offers several security features, including free remote backup services for accounts under 10GB in size. For WordPress sites, a free Sucuri Security plugin can be used to scan for malware and other security risks. McAfee spam and virus protection (starting at $1.39 per month) is also available for email accounts. You can purchase SSL certificates ($99.99 per year, with a $25 installation fee), which include a dedicated IP address.

Rock-Solid Uptime

Uptime is an incredibly important aspect of the hosting experience. If your website is down, clients or customers will be unable to find you or access your products or services. That is a nightmare scenario. Thankfully, InMotion showed dependable uptime in my testing.

I use a website monitoring tool to track my test sites' uptime over a 14-day period. Every 15 minutes, the tool pings my website and sends me an email if it is unable to contact the site for at least one minute. The data revealed that my InMotion site went down briefly during the testing period. Overall, InMotion is stable and dependable, but it's worth noting that some services, including A2 web hosting, didn't go down at all during testing.

Customer Service

I fired up InMotion's web chat on a weekday afternoon to learn about how shared hosting differed from VPS hosting. A representative appeared a few seconds later, and I got the information I needed.

I later called InMotion's customer support squad to learn about reseller hosting. Someone quickly fielded my call and gently explained the differences in everyday language. I am very pleased with InMotion's customer service.

About the Author

For more than a decade, Jeffrey L. Wilson has penned gadget- and video game-related nerd-copy for a variety of publications, including 1UP, 2D-X, The Cask, Laptop, LifeStyler, Parenting, Sync, Wise Bread, and WWE. He now brings his knowledge and skillset to PCMag as Senior Analyst.

When he isn't staring at a monitor (or two) and churning out Web hosting, music, utilities, and video game copy, Jeffrey mentors, practices Jeet Kune Do, blogs, podcasts, and speaks at the occasional con. He also collects vinyl and greatly enjoys a craft brew.